The Movement is Already There, It Just Needs to Be Reasoned With / Young People Catching On?
It is pretty well accepted throughout the liberty community that college is, to put it nicely, not all it is cracked up to be. But, is it possible that people my age (early twenties) are catching on to this fact as well? There certainly have been a lot of them graduating lately only to find that they are not only without one of the “super careers” that were promised to them but that they are S.O.L. in every other facet of their lives.
The case for college has been building for a long time; the people on top, at least from my practical experience almost always seem to have a college degree. Also, if you weren’t told over and over again in your early years at the government indoctrination camps that you needed to go to college, you’re lying, or homeschooled. I have been told by my parents and others all my life that an education was a rite of passage, as if skipping school would preclude me growing hair on my chest. I will not argue for what college might have used to been, I have no frame of reference to make a convincing argument in that area. I do know however, that at this time in history, there is no obvious proof that there is any value in college beyond the value gained from stealing from the young and gullible.
I will admit, that I am one of the college “success stories”; I graduated a year ago and found a good job within a few months. But luck is luck, and I know this because of the sheer number of former colleagues I see complaining about being out of work through Facebook every week or so. It’s not like these people graduated with their art history degrees either, because I don’t even believe that a BA is an option at the Colorado School of Mines. It really scares me that from the time that I was 10 to the time that I actually graduated college I was oblivious to the fact that I would be playing the equivalent of Russian Roulette with $50,000 dollars of my parent’s money. And yes, it was not really my money but would you like to see someone you love have two brand new cars or a priceless family heirloom stolen from them for each kid that they had? You would resent that right?
Ok, but now it is time to end the rant and get to the good stuff! If you agree with what I wrote above and are worried about the kids, stop. Worrying is bad for your health and just like the market without the destructive influence of the government; the kids are righting their attitudes about this once sacred institution. Go to YouTube and look up “College Scam” or “Worthless Diploma” or something along those lines. You will find hundreds of videos, mostly of young people, denouncing their education as one of the worst things that they ever did. Some of them are even high quality music videos. Don’t believe me?
One caveat though, most of them are advocating a government takeover of college so that they can go to college for “free”. This doesn’t mean that they are lost causes though; it means that they have 90% of the concept down and the last 10% will come when someone shows them that the reason college is a bum institution in the first place is because of heavy government involvement. The movement is already there! It just needs to be reasoned with!
I’m sure that every person reading this has heard this one over and over, but that is only because it needs to be repeated: NEVER EQUATE SCHOOLING AND EDUCATION. I gained the position I have at my company through a combination of education and Bull**** (a BS and more BS, haha). I prepared myself to last more than a month at this position through a combination of ignoring grades so I could focus on getting the most I could out of the information available on a college campus and small projects that I did on my own time because I wanted to see if I could figure out how to do it. This gave me a combination of skills that allowed me do things that other people at my work couldn’t and made me valuable to my company. Not going into a philosophical discussion I will just say that: this is the way freedom works.